Axis guide line problem
In user views, you can control the visibility of the axes and grid floor in the 'Display' panel of the properties region in the 3D View window.



I don't know why, but this doesn't work in the preset orthographic views (Top, Left, etc.). To hack out of that, convert the preset view to a user view from exactly the same angle, by tilting away and back again: Numpad46. It might be more convenient to align your view to a selected face, or an object's Z axis, using ShiftNumpad7.